The Copernicus Emergency Management Service was activated by the German Civil Protection authority for risk mapping of chemical plants and national assets.

Demonstrating the value of Copernicus to Germany's national risk assessment activities

The Copernicus Emergency Management Service’s Risk & Recovery Mapping module can support disaster risk reduction, preparedness and prevention, recovery and reconstruction by providing pre- and post-disaster maps and vector data to European and international stakeholders in the field of disaster management and civil protection. The German Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance has demonstrated the value of this type of mapping to its national risk assessment, making two requests for activations of the service: detailed maps of chemical industry sites and the creation of a national asset map for the whole German territory.

The Copernicus Emergency Management Service (EMS) is Europe’s crisis mapping tool; a round-the-clock service which provides maps and analyses before, during or after a crisis based on satellite imagery, as well as early warning services for flood and fire risks.

The EMS is perhaps best-known for its Rapid Mapping module, which delivers geospatial information on emerging and evolving natural and anthropogenic crises on-demand, and in very short timescales of hours to days. This module facilitates efficient responses to crises, in the minutes and hours after they begin, as crisis managers seek to understand the extent of damages and marshal their resources to best effect in order to save lives and minimise the impacts.

In the weeks and months after a crisis, the focus shifts from the immediate response to activities taking place over the longer term: recovery and reconstruction in the wake of a disaster. Likewise, in anticipation of a crisis, the focus then shifts to disaster risk reduction, prevention and preparedness. The Copernicus Emergency Management Service supports these processes through its Risk & Recovery Mapping module. For post-disaster situations, the service supplies maps assessing needs and outlining recovery plans, and can monitor the process of reconstruction and/or rehabilitation over time. Before a disaster, the service can provide information on risk, hazard exposure, vulnerability and resilience, as well as mapping out evacuation plans and the effects of simulated crisis scenarios. In addition, the service can provide background information, delivering comprehensive and up-to-date knowledge on a particular territory and its assets.

The German Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BKK-Bundesamt für Bevölkerungsschutz und Katastrophenhilfe) is the authority in charge of managing disaster response and preparation in the country. Responding to a call launched by the European Commission for expressions of interest in using the Copernicus Risk & Recovery Mapping service, the BBK issued two requests in support of its national risk assessment. The first, launched in March 2016, was related to mapping industrial sites for the production of chemicals, and the second (April 2016) to a nation-wide assets (residential, commercial, farming, etc.) map of Germany.

Mapping Germany's chemical production industry

The chemical and pharmaceutical industry is Germany’s third-largest industrial sector, the largest in Europe and fourth-largest in the world, and comprises some 2,000 chemical companies employing close to half a million workers[1]. Crude oil being the main source of carbon for chemical production, Germany’s chemical production infrastructure also includes thirteen oil refineries and eight “steam crackers” (processing facilities which use steam to break large hydrocarbons into smaller pieces). These facilities are spread across the country, and some 35 “chemical parks” host processing facilities which are connected to the countries extensive pipeline and logistics infrastructure.

Chemical manufacturing processes almost always involve high temperatures and high pressure, and can produce toxic chemical intermediates as well as extremely dangerous end products. As a result, there are a host of risks associated with the chemical production industry. Explosions, accidents and leaks can cause major damages and release toxic products into the air or water, endangering nearby populations as well as harming the environment.

The BBK therefore tasked the Copernicus Risk & Recovery Mapping component of the Emergency Management Service to produce highly detailed maps of a selected number of locations across the country, with the aim of understanding their internal layout as well as their surroundings. Due to the sensitive nature of the information, neither the final maps nor the accompanying report were made publicly available.

Thirteen major chemical production sites were mapped using recent Earth Observation data at a scale of 1:5000. The maps contain information about the land cover, hydrography, transport infrastructure and population of the selected areas, as well as detailed information about the chemical sites, including the location of cooling and industrial towers, mines and quarries, mineral piles and – crucially for this activation - storage containers. The legend used in the maps for the industrial elements is shown below.

The type of storage container (vertical, horizontal, spherical, etc.) was also recorded. The height of features such as towers, smokestacks and flare pipes was also captured for use in assessing air navigation security. An illustrative, low resolution sample from one of the maps produced is provided below.

These maps and the accompanying report provided valuable insights for the German national risk assessment exercise.

A national asset map of Germany

This activation of EMS Copernicus Risk & Recovery Mapping related to the production of a “wall-to-wall” map of the entire German territory showing the different types of assets (e.g. private households, industry, commerce, vehicles, agriculture, etc.). The map expresses the varying values of these assets across the country in EUR/m2.

The background to this activation is similar work conducted under the auspices of the SAFER project, one of the precursors to the Copernicus Emergency Management Service. In 2011, BBK requested a German-wide asset map from SAFER, which was used for the estimation of potential damages as part a risk analysis, as well as during actual event such as the floods which swept across the country in 2013.

The BBK therefore requested that this map and the accompanying dataset be updated in the context of the activation. An improved methodology developed in the framework of the IncREO FP7 project was used. The result is a complete nation-wide map of German assets, which is presented in terms of six different categories of assets.

The full map is shown below. As well as supplying the final value for the combined asset types, the service provided individual layers for each asset. The national asset map was highly appreciated by the BBK, as it serves as a key input for the production of multi-risk and vulnerability maps. It also has other areas of applications, such as for the insurance industry.

Through its Risk & Recovery Mapping component, the Copernicus EMS provided valuable and timely contributions to Germany’s national risk assessment exercise. Both the activations requested by BBK demonstrate the value that the Copernicus Emergency Management Service can provide to crisis management authorities undertaking preparedness, prevention and disaster risk reduction activities.